


The Serpent and the Canary

by Nyah



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 16:33:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12084936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyah/pseuds/Nyah
Summary: Queenie Goldstein is the best Legilimens the world has ever known. Severus Snape is a newly-minted renegade Death Eater who needs to learn Occlumency yesterday.





	The Serpent and the Canary

Today, halfway up a long stone staircase, there’s a girl in head-to-toe baby blue felt and wool, with just the barest shimmer at the edges like the glint off a broomstick in open sky. She trips up the stairs with a demur laugh. “Gosh, I’m late again!” She gasps, scandalized by her own moxie. Everyone she passes feels younger for a sparkling instant. Every cheek is kissed sweetheart pink and every bowler hat is rumpled in the wind of the memory of Quidditch games gone by.

“Truth be told,” she’d tell you if you ever thought to ask–which you never would because, our girl, she’s the very best at what she does, queen of stray thoughts, and duchess of misdirection.

“Truth be told,” she’d say on that never-coming day you think to ask. “This is how it started, you know. What? Everything! My look…my, oh jeepers, what’s the word? Oh! My aesthetic hospitality. I know, dolls, those words are worth a quarter apiece, ain’t that a laugh? What was it you were saying? Oh, me? Yes, it’s why I started up my look. It makes people happy to see a pretty face first thing, turns out. Brightens their day right for that first precious minute. And I…you know, honey, I’m just happier when the people around me are happy. It’s a silly little thing about this ole brain of mine. ”

Be careful as your heart goes out to our soda pop girl. She’s sung her lullaby to the moon again, she’s played her tricks on you, like always. Made the story about sequins and smiles, redirected you from the facts.

Queenie Goldstein knows she’s a distraction. She knows, even if you don’t, that stories are never about the glitter. Glitter just tells you there’s another story you might have to earn, one you might have to turn your life over to follow to the end.

Queen also knows that this story didn’t start just any day. Look back. It started today. A day of bright sun, and good gin, and a dark stranger standing still in the crush of the Manhattan crowd, shouting her name.


End file.
